British pubs under threat from new 'eye-watering' business rates

The great British boozer is under threat as a result of spiralling business rates, according to a campaign group which warns they are a “ticking time bomb” which could devastate the sector.

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) is calling for an annual £5,000 reduction in business rates for every pub across England, after revealing that since the early 1970s nearly 30,000 pubs have called “last orders” and closed their doors for good.

The 2018 edition of Camra’s Good Beer Guide, published on Thursday, reports that when Camra was formed in the early 1970s, the UK boasted 75,000 pubs. But while there are a number of reasons for closures over the years – the high price of a pint, the 2007 smoking ban and the 2008 recession – the new business rates revaluation introduced this year is the latest “ticking time bomb” to devastate the sector’s remaining pubs. The total is now down to fewer than 47,000, the guide says, with 21 typically closing every week.

Some business rate increases, due to be phased in over a five-year period, are described by the guide as “eye-watering”. The Baum in Rochdale, Camra’s national pub of the year in 2012, will see its rateable value increased by a massive 377%, for example, while the Sandford Park Alehouse in Cheltenham, its pub of the year in 2015, faces a hike of 181%.

“The British pub is unique, rooted in our island’s history, dating from Roman and Saxon times,” said the Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz. “There is no better place for people to meet, enjoy a beer, strike up a conversation, make new friends and put the world to rights. Above all, the British pub, both ancient and modern, has character and an atmosphere that could never be replaced.”

Simon Crompton, owner of the Baum, said: “In five years’ time when we have no rate relief at all I doubt whether we will be able to stay open. We will have to pay £3,500 more in rates every month as our rateable value has jumped from £26,000 to £126,000.” Crompton’s pub has weathered many storms – not least people visiting less regularly and drinking supermarket-bought beer at home – but he condemns the change as “the worst thing” to have happened in his 24 years running the pub. His other pub – the Healey in Shawclough – is also facing rate increases, albeit on a smaller scale.

This year’s 1,029-page guide lists entries for more than 4,500 of the UK’s best pubs in rural and urban areas, also name-checking breweries and their key beers. It is the 24th – and last – to be edited by Protz, who has seen many upheavals in the sector during his tenure.

“The biggest change in that time is that pubs are no longer a male preserve,” he said, “while the smoking ban (which ironically has contributed to closures) has meant no more nicotine fug to ruin the taste of beer. Pub-goers now also have a tremendous range of beers. It used to be just mild and bitter but now there is golden ale, IPA beers aged in wood, beers with added of herbs, fruit and spices, porter and stout and the latest trend, Belgian-style sour beer.”

However the guide also warns that consumers are being misled because they are unaware that familiar brand names on pump clips at bars are now owned by what Americans call “Big Beer” and may no longer be made to original recipes.

AB Inbev, it claims, along with other “Big Beer” global brewers, is strategically targeting the independent brewing sector following the decline of mass market lager brands. The scene was set last year when the third largest corporate takeover in history saw AB InBev buy its rival SABMiller for £71bn, in effect taking control of 30% of the world’s beer production and sales.

“First Big Beer buys up a swath of independent breweries,” Protz said. “Now it’s attempting to control the natural ingredients used to make beer. The power of these global behemoths is frightening and has to be vigorously resisted.”